CH13 - The Storm

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"When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered: "There's just something about you that pisses me off." - Stephen King, Storm of the Century

— — —

I'd thought about fabbing the necessary clothing to disguise us, and having us simply go somewhere for the evening, but after thinking about it, it wasn't an option.

"Sorry, Henry," Lisa said, her tone unapologetic. "The bland sterile mystique of your shit is a big part of the reason I'm not as messed up as when I showed up a few days ago. Going out for the day sounds fun and all, but if it means getting punched in the face by my own power, I have to pass."

"Sounds like you're stuck in the APC after all, then, since the warehouse isn't sterile at all right now," I replied. Her face fell.

Paige wouldn't have been a problem. The problem was me.

Coil had made it quite clear how little unwritten rules mattered to him, and he had seen my face. I wasn't willing to gamble as to the limits of his surveillance.

Especially as Paige's life was so very insecure. Which… I could fix now.

"Paige."

She looked up from the tablet she had brought along. "Yeah?"

"Come with me, there's something we need to do." Lisa made a disgusted face. I triggered the hatch of the APC, and led Paige over to the rough circle of machines I had trucked in the night before. The hatch shut quickly behind us. In the center of the circle sat the healing vat.

I woke up my fork— which I still needed to merge— and the lid opened. He climbed out, stumbling slightly, then sat down by a fabber. "This… sucks," he said slowly, looking at me. "We need more real biomorphs."

"Is this… the guy who broke me out?" She paused. "I mean, the guy you had do it?"

"Both," I said, amused. "You have already gathered that I am a 'tinker'?"

She nodded, looking between us curiously.

"That is me as well," I said. "Another instance of myself. At the first opportunity, we will be merged back together. Right now, he has been doing things robots cannot be seen doing."

Her eyes widened, and she looked at him again. She walked over slowly, reaching out.

"Then he remembers…"

"No," I said. "Right now he remembers breaking you out, whereas I remember everything that came after. After we merge, I and future forks will possess both."

"But I do know what we've been doing," the chinese me said, grinning at Paige. She blushed.

"That isn't important right now," I said. "What is important is the method. My technology defeats death, and I want to install into you the same protections. So that it is impossible for you to be permanently killed short of eradicating everything I have built on this Earth." I gave her a brief smile. "I did promise to keep you safe."

Her mouth worked as she stood there. "I… wow. Alright. What do you need me to do?"

"Just get in the vat he just stepped out of," I said simply. "I will handle the rest."

— — —

Paige's body confounded me.

Her genetic code did reflect some of her alterations. She had four times the photoreceptors as a unmodified flat, with similar enhancement of the optic nerves. However, simulation of the DNA generated eyes and optic nerves only 10% better than the norm. It was as though her mutations were only reflected in her DNA to the extent required for the cells to function properly.

Even this was not consistent. She had gene markers for increased fast-twitch muscle mass, but it wasn't enough. I had difficulty reconciling the data that terahertz and nanites reported, until intuition bridged the gap.

There was a subtle distortion of space. She quite literally had a little more mass to her musculature than should fit in the space they took up.

This made her larynx easier to figure out. At first glance, she possessed twice the vocal folds as a normal human. But she simultaneously possessed something resembling a syrinx— the bird equivalent of vocal cords, and altogether different in structure— in the same space. A space that was only accessible from certain angles. Somehow. In this case, the genetics were a clusterfuck. The simulated throat based on her DNA didn't form anything functional for making noise at all.

I had a suspicion her actual throat, distorted space and all, still shouldn't be able to make some of the sounds I'd heard her make.

The DNA for the throat was corrupt, but the genetics for the eyes were enhanced, if not to the degree of her actual eyes. Her hair was bright yellow genetically, but the DNA to express the feathers was only present in portions of her scalp, and not in the rest of her cells. Whereas the other genetic changes were in all cells. Some things were achieved purely through normal structures, and others bent space itself.

It was all haphazard, no consistency, to the point that it all irritated me simply by existing.

I tore myself away, and focused on the practical. I disabled the vat routines to optimize the musculature for now, and region-blacklisted her larynx, eyes, and scalp except for the case of life-threatening injury. Other than that I allowed the medichines to repair everything to peak performance. I queued fabbing and installation of the basic biomods, mesh inserts, and cortical stack.

[Task prioritized. Estimated time to completion: 7 hours.]

With that done, I turned my thoughts to Coil. Online forums were in a furor. Since random accounts had claimed that I and Lisa were responsible for the leak, I responded in kind. Sia generated a series of new accounts and suggested that it was Coil's doing, he was exactly the type, creepy mastermind…

While my PHO account denied responsibility to anyone messaging me, I didn't make a public response. As no one of importance— by which I meant a faction or their parahumans— had publicly accused me, I felt that acknowledging the rumor would only give it undue credibility. My private denials were reposted in the threads in any case.

I sighed, and with a nod to my other self I walked back to the APC. The hatch opened silently, but Lisa looked up as I climbed back inside.

"Where's your toy?"

"What's your problem with Paige," I said bluntly. Lisa looked taken aback.

"Erm— well…" she said, pausing. "Okay. Maybe I've been a little tetchy."

I gave her an unimpressed stare.

"I'll try to be nicer?"

I sighed. "I notice you aren't sorry."

She leaned her head back against the wall. "Okay, so. I kind of liked it when it was just you and me, you know, sitting around silently and shit. It was a break. And then you brought in Parian, and now Canary… you starting a collection?" She gave me a weak grin.

It sounded like she was dancing around being jealous to me— for my attention? My space? She was a teenage girl. I wasn't going to waste time trying to make sense of her.

"Just… do better," I said finally.

"Sure thing."

A buzzing noise abruptly interrupted. "Huh? Oh," Lisa muttered, looking at a battered flip phone. "Not used to having reception around you."

I shrugged. "If you'd ever asked, I would have had the old base boost your signal." I paused. "Who knows that number?"

"Just Skitter. It was my newest 'civilian' phone. I was going to do more girl stuff with her, but… yeah."

She flipped it open, putting it to her ear. "Bumblebee S. No immediate danger, but the situation doesn't look good?

Wait, you're doing what? No, look, I'd like to help but my power is fucked right now. I— damnit Taylor no. Fuck, give me a second."

She fumbled for Paige's tablet, pulling it over. She tapped at it distractedly.

A video started playing. "...Until she is returned, this doesn't stop. I will take this city apart until I find you or you come to stop me. My subordinates will murder anyone, everyone, until the matter is settled. I don't care…"

"Fuck," Lisa said. "Okay, Taylor, let me think." She replayed the video, wincing. She leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes. "All I can tell you is she's a mother, and her baby was taken. Probably because of Coil's shit, but I don't really know because my power is toast right now, just that much has my head splitting open. She's doing this indiscriminate shit because she's lost her shit over it, just stay away from her. No, Taylor— god damn she hung up." Lisa tossed the phone down in disgust.

After a moment, she gave me a sideways look. "Do you think…"

"No."

"But—"

"No."

She scowled. "You're seriously going to hang my friends out to dry? How is this any different from Bakuda?"

"I wasn't trying to rescue them from Bakuda, I was trying to rescue you."

She ducked her head. "I— damnit." She was silent for a minute, before looking up, her cheeks tinged faintly red. "I can't just— fuck. Fuck. Please? Please help?"

I sighed. "What can I even do?"

"Skitter's got it into her head that she has to do something about Purity. If you can take her out somehow, then…"

Sia, can you locate Purity?

[Checking news media. Calculating footage origin points, triangulating. Historical data computed. Purity moves too quickly. Public footage is too outdated. She is highly visible in flight. Launching delivery drone…]

I waited patiently, as a drone spun up and my fork let it out of the warehouse.

[Target identified. Order queued and prioritized. ETA: approximately forty three minutes.]

"Give me forty five minutes," I said.

— — —

I watched through the eye of the approaching product delivery drone. The feed flickered white as another building was gutted, the walls collapsing into a rising wave of dust and ash. A part of me wanted to study the effect.

But that wasn't going to be an option.

[Launching.]

With a harsh whine that could be heard even inside the APC, the the jet turbines on the side of the missile spun up, the thick frame welding it to the floor of the warehouse bending under the stress, the vibration rattling the building. Explosive bolts detonated, and the missile blew through the thin metal siding of the warehouse in an instant, roaring across the bay. It accelerated, shooting past Mach 1, then the jet turbines were blown off as the scramjet ignited. It took a long, sweeping loop into the stratosphere, then back over Brockton Bay...

[Target locked.]

...and though it had a camera, there was nothing to see. The scramjet dived into the city faster than sound, going from the stratosphere to smashing into Purity's skull in seconds. For all intents and purposes, it was instantaneous.

[Confirming… confirmed. Target eliminated. Note: anomalous impact readings.]

Slow motion replay from the delivery drone showed the scramjet colliding. Rather than plowing through her body, it shoved her downward, crumpling and disintegrating into plasma. Her skull shattered, and then the glow vanished, her body promptly exploding into boiling vapor as it should have from the start.

"It's done. Purity is gone," I said, opening my eyes.

Lisa blinked at me.

"...What."

After a second, she pulled herself together, picking up her phone and dialing. "Hummingbird F. What? Purity's gone. What do you mean how did I know, that's what I do, I know shit..."

I leaned back. Doing that was… unwise. But Lisa wasn't the type to beg. I couldn't say no.

I'd just have to live with the consequences.

— — —

/AN: did somebody say missiles